FTMO offers 1-Step Challenge (90% split from day 1) and 2-Step Challenge (Phase 1 + Verification, 80% base scaling to 90%) across $10K-$200K sizes. The 1-Step has no Swing variant. Full pricing and account-type breakdown in my FTMO accounts guide, or read the complete review. Sign up at FTMO.
The core difference between FTMO Standard and Swing comes down to two trading-time restrictions: news events and weekends. Standard enforces both. Swing removes both. The pricing is identical. This is a style decision, not a budget decision, and getting it wrong costs you real trades.
As of May 2026, FTMO offers three live product variants: 1-Step Standard, 2-Step Standard, and 2-Step Swing. If you are on the 2-Step path, you choose your variant at checkout and trade under those rules for the life of that account. If you are on the 1-Step path, Swing is not an option: the 1-Step Challenge runs Standard conditions only. Understanding why that is, and what each variant actually restricts, is what this article covers.
What's the difference between FTMO Standard and Swing?
Standard and Swing are account-type variants available on the 2-Step Challenge. They share the same profit targets, the same loss limits, the same account sizes, the same payout structure, and (critically) the same price. The only thing that differs is which trading-time restrictions apply.
Here is the full feature matrix:
| Feature | 2-Step Standard | 2-Step Swing |
|---|---|---|
| Profit target (Phase 1) | 10% | 10% |
| Profit target (Phase 2) | 5% | 5% |
| Daily loss limit | 5% | 5% |
| Max loss limit | 10% static | 10% static |
| News trading | Restricted (flat ±2 min) | Allowed |
| Overnight holding | Not allowed | Allowed |
| Weekend holding | Not allowed | Allowed |
| Crypto weekend holds | Not allowed | Allowed |
| Profit split (base) | 80% | 80% |
| Profit split (scaled) | 90% | 90% |
| Pricing (€, $10K–$200K) | €155–€1,080 | €155–€1,080 |
| Sizes available | $10K–$200K | $10K–$200K |
| 1-Step variant available? | Yes | No |
The restrictions on Standard apply at the funded FTMO Account stage. During the Challenge evaluation phases, the rules are formally the same, and FTMO can flag pattern violations for review, so the cleanest approach is to trade both phases as if the funded rules are already in effect.
What does Standard restrict?
Standard accounts carry two active restrictions: news trading and overnight/weekend holding.
News trading restriction. On a Standard account, you must be flat (zero open positions) within a 2-minute window before and after any scheduled high-impact news event. The total restricted window is roughly 4 minutes per event. High-impact events covered by this rule include FOMC rate decisions, Non-Farm Payrolls, CPI releases, ECB and Bank of England rate decisions, GDP prints, PPI, and ISM data. The FTMO news trading rule article covers the full list of qualifying events and enforcement mechanics in detail.
A violation on the funded stage constitutes a breach of account terms. If your position is open when the restricted window starts, you need to close it before the window opens. There is no partial tolerance.
Overnight and weekend holding restriction. On Standard, all positions must be closed before the relevant market session ends for the day. No carry trades, no swing setups, no open positions running into Friday's market close. The FTMO weekend holding rule applies universally across all instruments on Standard accounts. This means that if you are trading forex and you are still in a GBP/USD position when the Friday session closes, that is a rules violation. For crypto, which trades around the clock, Standard accounts require positions closed before FTMO's designated weekend boundary.
These two restrictions are not arbitrary. FTMO introduced the Standard structure to limit gap risk and news-spike risk on its simulated capital. The economic logic is clear: the firm is on the hook for simulated profits paid out as real cash, and uncapped exposure to binary macro events or weekend gaps is a liability it manages via account structure.
What does Swing allow?
The Swing variant on the 2-Step Challenge removes both restrictions entirely.
News trading is fully allowed. No flat requirement, no 2-minute window, no restricted event list. You can hold a live EUR/USD position through FOMC, enter just before NFP, or trade the full volatility of a rate decision. FTMO does not interfere with your position management around news on a Swing account.
Overnight holding is allowed. You can carry positions from one session to the next without closing. A trade opened on Monday morning can remain active through Wednesday. There is no overnight cut-off.
Weekend holding is allowed. You can carry positions from Friday's session through Sunday's open and beyond. For traditional forex and indices, this means your position sits open while markets are closed and reopens wherever the price gaps on Monday. For crypto markets, Swing accounts allow continuous 24/7 exposure, including Saturday and Sunday. This is a genuine operational advantage for crypto traders who want to capture weekend price action without forced liquidation.
The Swing variant does not change anything else. Your daily loss limit, your max loss rule, your profit targets, and your payout rules are all identical to Standard. You are not paying more for these freedoms, and you are not giving up any rules protections.
Why does 1-Step have no Swing?
The 1-Step Challenge runs a tighter risk structure than the 2-Step. Its daily loss limit is 3% (vs 5% on 2-Step), and its maximum loss is a 10% trailing drawdown that moves upward with your account equity, not a static 10%. The tighter limits reflect the single-phase evaluation model: there is no Phase 2 buffer to catch a slow recovery.
FTMO's decision to not offer a Swing variant on the 1-Step is consistent with this risk logic. Allowing unlimited overnight and weekend exposure under a trailing max loss with a 3% daily floor creates a scenario where a single gap event could eliminate a large portion of the trailing buffer. The standard product designed for traders who want Swing mechanics is the 2-Step Swing path.
Paul scalps the 1-Step Challenge primarily on Standard $50K and $100K sizes. His natural style already closes positions intraday, so the absence of a Swing option on the 1-Step is irrelevant to his trading. If you hold trades overnight as a core part of your methodology, the 1-Step is simply not the right path for you: start from the 2-Step Swing instead.
Are pricing different?
No. As of May 2026, FTMO Standard and FTMO Swing carry identical pricing at every 2-Step Challenge size. The Swing variant is not positioned as a premium product.
| Account Size | 2-Step Standard | 2-Step Swing |
|---|---|---|
| $10,000 | €155 | €155 |
| $25,000 | €250 | €250 |
| $50,000 | €345 | €345 |
| $100,000 | €540 | €540 |
| $200,000 | €1,080 | €1,080 |
The challenge fee at every size is refunded in full on your first reward withdrawal from the funded FTMO Account, regardless of which variant you chose. The 1-Step carries a separate (lower) pricing structure and is not part of this comparison.
No public promo code is active for FTMO in May 2026. The Prime Programme loyalty code (10% off) activates internally after 4 qualifying payouts and is not available at signup.
Who should pick Standard?
Standard is the right choice for scalpers, intraday traders, and anyone whose strategy already closes positions before the session ends. If you never hold overnight by preference, Standard imposes no friction. You are not giving up anything your trading methodology requires.
Specific profiles that fit Standard:
Scalpers. Positions open for seconds to minutes, closed well before any news window. Paul's approach on FTMO is exactly this: scalp trades on the 1-Step Standard $50K and $100K. If you trade the same way, Standard is your natural home.
Day traders. You open and close within the same session, flat by day's end. The overnight and weekend restrictions are simply not a constraint for your style.
Algorithmic and systematic traders. If your EA or automated strategy is built to close all positions by a defined session end-time, Standard is compliant and straightforward to operate.
News avoiders. Some traders build rules around avoiding news entirely because it disrupts their read on price action. Standard is actually well-suited here: the restriction formalizes a rule you would self-impose anyway.
The FTMO rules overview covers the full operating ruleset for Standard accounts, including prohibited strategies and restricted instruments that apply to both variants.
Who should pick Swing?
Swing is the only viable path if your strategy requires holding positions through news events or across sessions. Choosing Standard and then trading like a swing trader does not work. You will breach the account rules, not just underperform.
Specific profiles that fit Swing:
Swing and position traders. You enter off daily or weekly setups and hold for days to weeks. Standard accounts would require you to close those trades daily, destroying the trade thesis. Swing accounts let you manage positions on their own timeline.
News traders. Your edge is specifically around macro catalysts: FOMC, NFP, CPI, ECB. You want to be in the trade before the print and hold through the spike. That is only possible on a Swing account. The FTMO news trading rule confirms that Standard prohibits exactly this. Swing removes the restriction entirely.
Carry trade practitioners. Carry trades depend on holding positions overnight to collect interest rate differentials. Standard accounts make this impossible. Swing accounts make it straightforward.
Crypto traders who trade around the clock. If you are active on BTC/USD, ETH/USD, or other crypto pairs and want continuous exposure through the weekend, Swing is the only structure that accommodates this. Standard requires you to flatten before Friday's weekend boundary, which forces you to exit positions that may still have active momentum.
Trend followers. If you trade on weekly or monthly timeframes and want exposure to multi-week directional moves, Standard's daily close requirement cuts your trades short at arbitrary points. Swing accounts let trends run.
What about crypto on Swing?
Crypto is a notable use case for the Swing variant that often gets overlooked in the Standard vs Swing conversation.
FTMO offers crypto pairs including BTC/USD and ETH/USD as tradable instruments. Crypto markets do not close on weekends. They operate 24 hours, 7 days a week. On a Standard account, FTMO requires all positions to be closed before the designated weekend boundary. That means if you are holding a long BTC/USD position going into Friday, you must exit before the weekend, whether or not your trade idea has played out.
On a Swing account, the weekend hold restriction is lifted. Your crypto position stays open through Saturday and Sunday, capturing any weekend price movement (or absorbing adverse moves on your own terms). When markets open Monday, your position is still live. You manage it on your terms, not on a forced Friday liquidation schedule.
For traders whose crypto edge includes weekend volatility patterns, Swing is not optional. Standard literally cannot support that strategy.
How do gap risk and slippage shape the choice?
The freedom Swing provides comes with an explicit risk that Standard avoids by design: gap risk.
Gap risk on weekend holds. When traditional forex and index markets close on Friday and reopen on Monday, the opening price can differ significantly from Friday's close. A weekend of geopolitical news, an unexpected central bank statement, or a major earnings release from a weekend-reporting firm can produce gaps of 50–200+ pips in major pairs or 1–3% in indices. On a Swing account, that gap lands directly on your open position. If the gap runs against you, it can consume a significant portion of your daily loss limit (5% on 2-Step) in a single opening print, with no opportunity to exit before the loss registers.
Gap risk on news events. Holding through macro events like FOMC also exposes Swing traders to slippage. Brokers and simulation platforms fill positions at the first available price post-announcement. In high-volatility events, that price can be materially worse than the pre-announcement level. A 50-pip spike that fills your stop at 80 pips is not theoretical; it is routine behavior around FOMC. Swing traders who trade news need to size conservatively and keep mental buffer against the 5% daily loss limit.
Standard avoids this by design. The flat-before-news and flat-before-weekend requirements ensure that Standard account holders are never exposed to gap-open risk or news-spike fill risk. That is not an accident. Those restrictions exist precisely to avoid that exposure. If your strategy does not require those exposures, Standard is a lower-risk operating environment.
How to manage gap risk on Swing. The primary tool is position sizing. Entering a weekend hold with a position sized so that a 2–3% gap against you stays within 2–3% of your daily loss limit buffer gives you room to absorb and manage the trade on Monday without a breach. Some Swing traders also use limit orders placed over the weekend to define maximum adverse movement, though fills on limit orders across a gap can produce their own slippage.
Understanding FTMO's max loss rule in full is essential for any Swing trader: the 10% static maximum loss on the 2-Step means a large gap-open that breaches 10% drawdown from initial balance is an immediate account breach regardless of how the market moves after.
The bottom line
The FTMO Standard vs Swing decision is a style question, not a cost question. Both variants on the 2-Step Challenge carry identical pricing, identical profit targets, identical loss limits, and identical payout structures. The only live difference is whether you can hold positions through news events and over weekends.
Standard is the right choice for the majority of traders: scalpers, day traders, and anyone whose strategy is already intraday by default. If you close positions before the session ends and avoid scheduled macro events, Standard imposes no constraints and simplifies your compliance.
Swing is necessary for swing traders, news traders, carry traders, and crypto traders who need multi-day or multi-session exposure. If your edge requires holding through macro volatility or overnight drift, Standard will breach you. Not because you traded badly, but because the account variant is wrong for your method.
One constraint you cannot trade around: the 1-Step Challenge is Standard only. There is no 1-Step Swing. If you want Swing mechanics, you are on the 2-Step path. Paul trades the 1-Step scalping style and has withdrawn $15K+ from FTMO over ~4 years using Standard conditions. His methodology fits the path. Yours may not — choose accordingly.
For the full account structure including 1-Step vs 2-Step rules, sizing, and pricing, see the FTMO accounts overview. For the complete FTMO review including the OANDA acquisition context and trust analysis, see the FTMO main review. The FTMO FAQ covers common edge cases across both variants.
If you are comparing FTMO Swing to news-friendly accounts at other firms, relevant comparisons include FundedNext, FundingPips, and E8 Markets, all of which offer their own variants on overnight and news-trading restrictions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between FTMO Standard and Swing?
Standard accounts require you to close all positions before high-impact news events (2 minutes before/after) and before the weekend close. Swing accounts lift both restrictions entirely. You can hold trades through news releases and keep positions open over the weekend on a Swing account. The profit targets, loss limits, account sizes, and pricing are identical between the two variants within the 2-Step Challenge.
What does FTMO Standard restrict?
Two things: news trading and overnight/weekend holding. On Standard, you must be flat within a 2-minute window before and after any scheduled high-impact news event, and you must close all positions before the session ends each day and before the weekend. This keeps Standard traders out of gap-open and news-spike scenarios.
What does FTMO Swing allow?
Swing accounts allow news trading without any flat window, overnight position holding across sessions, and full weekend holding including across crypto markets that trade on Saturday and Sunday. All other rules (targets, loss limits, profit split, pricing) are identical to Standard.
Is FTMO Swing more expensive than Standard?
No. As of May 2026, FTMO Swing and Standard share identical pricing on every 2-Step Challenge size. From €155 ($10K) to €1,080 ($200K), both variants cost the same. The Swing variant is a trading-style option, not a premium tier.
Does the 1-Step Challenge have a Swing variant?
No. The 1-Step Challenge is Standard only. If you need Swing mechanics (news trading, overnight holds, weekend holds), you must select the 2-Step Challenge and choose the Swing variant at checkout. There is no 1-Step Swing path available at FTMO as of May 2026.
Can you trade crypto over the weekend on FTMO Swing?
Yes. Swing accounts allow weekend holding on all eligible instruments including crypto pairs. Since crypto markets trade continuously, a Swing account lets you maintain open BTC/USD, ETH/USD, and other crypto positions through Saturday and Sunday without a forced Friday close.
Who should choose FTMO Standard?
Scalpers, day traders, and algorithmic traders who close all positions intraday. If you never hold overnight by preference and avoid news events, Standard has no meaningful restrictions on your trading. Paul scalps the 1-Step Standard on $50K and $100K and it aligns naturally with his intraday approach.
Who should choose FTMO Swing?
Swing traders who hold for multiple days or weeks, news traders targeting FOMC, NFP, and CPI, carry trade practitioners, and crypto traders who want continuous weekend exposure. If your edge requires holding through volatility events rather than stepping aside, Swing is the only variant that supports your strategy.
Do the profit targets and loss limits differ between Standard and Swing?
No. Both variants on the 2-Step Challenge share the same rules: 10% Phase 1 target, 5% Phase 2 target, 5% daily loss limit, and 10% static maximum loss. Choosing Swing does not change any risk parameter. Only the trading-time restrictions differ.
What gap risk do Swing traders face on FTMO?
Weekend gaps can open 50–200+ pips against a position in major forex pairs or 1–3% in indices after unexpected weekend news. On a Swing account, that gap registers immediately against your open position and your daily loss limit. Swing traders should size positions held into weekends conservatively — factoring in how a 2–3% adverse gap would sit against the 5% daily loss limit and 10% max loss.
Can you switch from Standard to Swing on an existing account?
No. The variant is fixed at the time you purchase and begins the Challenge. If you want to switch, you need to purchase a new Challenge and select the alternative variant at checkout. There is no mid-account conversion.
Does the profit split differ between Standard and Swing?
No. The 2-Step Challenge starts at an 80% profit split for both Standard and Swing. The split upgrades to 90% via FTMO's Scaling Plan after consistent performance, regardless of variant. The variant selection has no effect on payout percentage.